Psychiatric telephone interview with parents for screening of childhood autism – tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other comorbidities (A-TAC)

BACKGROUND: Reliable, valid and easily administered screening instruments would greatly facilitate large-scale neuropsychiatric research. AIMS: To test a parent telephone interview focused on autism - tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other comorbidities (A-TAC). METHOD: Parents of 84 children in contact with a child neuropsychiatric clinic and 27 control children were interviewed. Validity and interrater and test - retest reliability were assessed. RESULTS: Interrater and test - retest reliability were very good. Areas under receiver operating characteristics curves between interview scores and clinical diagnoses were around 0.90 for ADHD and autistic spectrum disorders, and above 0.70 for tics, learning disorders and developmental coordination disorder. Using optimal cut-off scores for autistic spectrum disorder and ADHD, good to excellent kappa levels for interviews and clinical diagnoses were noted. CONCLUSIONS: The A-TAC appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for identifying autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD, tics, learning disorders and developmental coordination disorder.